Zin & Mixed Blacks — Past & Future - Wine & Spirits Magazine

Zin & Mixed Blacks — Past & Future


93             Stags' Leap Winery     $50     2021 Napa Valley Petite Sirah
Matter-of-fact tannins suck all the juiciness out of this wine’s fruit, and may well suck all the humidity out of your mouth. Even so, there’s sweetness to those stony tannins and energy to the wine as the flavors last. Hide it away. For now, it’s powerful, grippy, aggressively sweeping the table clean. It will benefit from a decade in the cellar.  

93             Two Angels     $27     2021 Red Hills Lake County Petite Sirah (Best Buy)
Soft and comforting, this feels warm, its alcohol integrated into potent, mouthwatering fruit. The juicy burst of plum freshness, along with the vegetal savor of the tannins reminded Tasting Director Corey Warren of newer styles of Madiran’s tannat—“violet perfumed and plummy.” Robert Pepi makes this wine in a Lake County collaboration with the Kreps family of Quintessential Wines. 

93             Wilson     $52     2020 Rockpile Petite Sirah
Rocks run through this petite's rich welcome, its blue-black color introducing a big, buxom wine with a girdle of mineral tannins. The umami richness takes me to the savor of rock-grown reds from the Côte Catalanes, then this petite goes a little sweet and grapey. The gentle, rocky tannins should take well to age. Or decant the young wine for Middle Eastern lamb dishes. (125 cases)  

91             Barra     $28     2021 Mendocino Reserve Petite Sirah (Best Buy)
A big, muscular petite, this throws its weight around like a rhinoceros. Still, in the end, the wine handles its weight and alcohol well, delivering rosy red fruit that feels smooth and approachable. (389 cases)  

91             Grgich Hills     $65     2019 Napa Valley Miljenko's Selection Petite Sirah
When you open this wine, you might find raspberry and lingonberry flavors peeking out from behind a cold black bruise of tannins. That reduction begins to fade with a day of air, the fruit intriguing, transformed from black and somber toward purple, round and supple.  

91             Handley     $28     2019 Redwood Valley Petite Sirah (Best Buy)
Brisk and clean, with black licorice and anise notes, this wine’s floral grip gives it a beeswax weight. (272 cases)  

91             Wilson     $52     2020 Dry Creek Valley Snake Patch Petite Sirah
Opaque in color, this wine offers a cool zesty feel to its fruit. There’s peachy ripeness to take on the rustic tannins, and volatility to spare. Red and black licorice flavors bring it together in an impressive finish. (150 cases)  

90             Sol Rouge     $75     2020 Lake County Petite Sirah
This big, juicy red brings a blast of black fruit and "yawza tannins." It begins to take shape with a day of air, less bitter, but still youthful with its volume turned up high. Give it cellar time to settle. (175 cases)  

NAPA VALLEY

94             Grgich Hills     $125     2020 Napa Valley Miljenko's Old Vine Zinfandel
A cool morning-sun wine, layering scents of sour cherries, blueberries and woodland morning mist. This grows in the Mayacamas hills above Calistoga, where Grgich Hills farms zinfandel, including 2.9 acres of vines planted in 1889, their fruit at the center of this wine. There’s a deep earthen well of mineral tannins, cool and dark, containing all the richness and holding it at bay. A pure and delicious zin in a sour, minor key, musical interpretation of the Napa Valley.  

93             Robert Biale     $65     2021 Howell Mountain Beatty Ranch Zinfandel
From a high-elevation ridgetop on Howell Mountain, this is all bunched up in a powerful mass of fruit, but it doesn't push at you: There's nothing aggressive about it, just mineral intensity that lasts along with the dark blueberry savor. Tasting Director Corey Warren thought it “smells like a frontier wine, California's wild wild west.” It should age for a decade or more. (320 cases)  

93             Robert Biale     $60     2021 St. Helena Old Kraft Vineyard Zinfandel
Warm up front, with dark tones of molasses and primary fruit, this carries its energy in the finish, clean and mouthwatering with tart notes of sour cherries. That fresher side of the fruit expresses itself with more clarity as the wine opens with air. Leave this in a decanter for hours before dinner, or cellar it for five years. (392 cases)  

93             Robert Biale     $60     2021 St. Helena Varozza Vineyard Zinfandel
Dry and stony, this wine’s mushroom savor connects it to the earth, even as the herbal fruit keeps juicing up in the end—“like a marijuana-infused plum gummy,” said one taster. Gentle and inviting, especially with grilled pork. (400 cases)  

93             Storybook Mountain     $45     2020 Napa Valley Mayacamas Range Zinfandel (Best Buy)
This 2020 presents a cool, vegetal take on zin, with some dried notes of cranberries, lasting on smoky herb. It’s sleek and plump without being hyper rich. Savory and elegant, long on blue-purple-red berry savor, this estate-grown zinfandel offers persistent fruit and zinny satisfaction.  

92             Storybook Mountain     $50     2020 Napa Valley Bottled Poetry Zinfandel
Light, pretty and high-toned in its youth, this wine remains somewhat inaccessible behind it tannins, as black as an iron skillet. The mouthwatering minerality has a sensation of hard water, restricting the red and black fruit, turning silken as it continues to open with air. Give it cellar time for its intensity to relent and its edges to soften. (194 cases)  

92             Storybook Mountain     $80     2020 Napa Valley Estate Reserve Zinfandel
This is a mercurial vintage of Storybook's Reserve, immediately showing some pink peppercorn heat and "root beer notes of shoots and roots," as Whitney Asher of Brava (Lenox, MA) described it. Tight and floral with a primary flavor of berries, this integrates with a day of air, growing bold, with the stemmy, seedy, red fruit ripeness of black-cap raspberries. Catch the tannins in a year or two as they relax into lovely velvet richness, already apparent with enough time in a decanter. (171 cases)  

91             Buehler     $35     2021 Napa Valley Zinfandel (Best Buy)
Fresh red cherries and star anise take this wine’s savor in a Sichuan direction, like numbing ma-la spice. It handles the spice with agile freshness, a simple, pleasing, plum-and-berry-filled Napa red. (450 cases)  

91             Robert Biale     $55     2021 Napa Valley Black Chicken Zinfandel
A lean and gracious zin, this wine’s racy blueberry flavors are clean and high-toned. The fruit is concentrated, rich and jammy even though the wine is not sweet.  

90             Robert Biale     $70     2021 Napa Valley Stagecoach Vineyard Zinfandel
A generous zin with a contrast of candied- and sour-cherry flavors, this is supple, black and brown, ending on dusty grape-skin tannins that give it shape and a bite, for flank steak.  

SONOMA COUNTY

95             Bella     $58     2019 Rockpile Rocky Ridge Zinfandel
Bright Bing cherry flavors meet a horse-hair bristle of tannins in this high-toned zin. The finish is clean, the alcohol well integrated into the fruit and structure, ending with a mineral puff of smoke and turned-earth humidity, lasting on stoniness. (230 cases)  

94             Soda Rock     $40     2021 Alexander Valley Zinfandel (Best Buy)
Fine integration of alcohol allows this wine's fruit tannins to shine, bringing wild mushroom fruit tones and some earthy grit. A big wine, reined in by its structure, its heat tamed, its tannins refined. There's a bright raspberry flavor in the end, showing the fruit’s ripeness without heat. Wilson Artisan Wines, Soda Rock's parent, grows this fruit at two estate vineyards west of 101, the zinfandel from a site north of Healdsburg, with a contribution of petite sirah from a vineyard north of Geyserville. (400 cases)  

93             Bella     $68     2021 Rockpile Rocks Edge Zinfandel
A cuddly, gentle bear hug of a zin, this wine makes me smile with the sensory bliss of its tannins, remarkable in their vinous savor and their feel—a cool well of juiciness within the stony structure. Blueberries and stones, for a grilled baby lamb chop. (155 cases)  

93             Radio-Coteau     $70     2020 Sonoma Coast Lemorel Zinfandel
This lasts with the red glow of an ember, taking its alcohol and merging it into warm fruit. Dry farmed at Eric Sussman’s far-coast estate in Occidental, this wine includes fruit from zinfandel vines that date to 1946. The concentration of those old vines is immediately apparent in the wine’s flavor, which grows increasingly more detailed with a day of air, needing age to show its best. That flavor infuses the pores of the mouth with rich red plum juiciness, a pomegranate pastry note, and warm touches of chocolate in the end. (120 cases)  

93             Robert Biale     $85     2021 Moon Mountain Monte Rosso Vineyard Zinfandel
Blueberry cordial scents come first, but you can dive deeper into this wine’s earthy fruit, finding juicy cranberry and rich leather notes packed into the oak. The wine holds its zinny fragrance in the end, the oak smoothing over the earthiness, then there's a lot of old-vine detail and currant intensity that lasts. (208 cases)  

93             Soda Rock     $48     2021 Alexander Valley Marshall Zinfandel
Lasting detail pulverizes this wine's tannins into fruit flavor, floral, gentle and black. There's energy at the center that keeps the flavors flowing. Dark and savory, this wine's black plum and blackberry flavors are built for grilled lamb and eggplant. (200 cases)  

93             Wilson     $45     2021 Dry Creek Valley Molly’s Zinfandel
Creamy-rich and smoky, this is a wine with finesse and grace. Tasting Director Corey Warren described it as “a rich river of fruit, building intensity in the structure without being pruney.” The texture is fleshy with coffee and chocolate-sweet edges to the tannins. Even as those tannins feel brisk, the wine remains gentle and comforting. (450 cases)  

92             Balletto     $32     2021 Russian River Valley Zinfandel (Best Buy)
A relatively light take on Russian River Valley zin, this delivers scents of pine and spice that last through the wine’s clean cherry extract. The tannins are peppery and lightly rustic, and while there’s some dried fruit leather complexity, this holds firm and fresh overall.  

92             Buena Vista Winery     $44     2021 Sonoma Valley Arpad's Selection Zinfandel
Black currant and tobacco scents run through this long and spicy zin, its lip-smacking tannins ready to imbue slow-smoked Kansas-Style BBQ with its mouthwatering spice. (407 cases)  

92             Pedroncelli     $45     2021 Dry Creek Valley Bushnell Vineyard Zinfandel
A sweet, plummy red, this wine’s dry tannins are just juicy enough to still feel supple, finishing warm, with the flavor of sunbaked stone. It leaves a concentrated impression of dried red-currant fruit that holds on the breath for minutes after each sip.  

92             St. Francis     $54     2019 Russian River Valley Anacleto Vineyard Old Vine Zinfandel
A ripe, old-fashioned wine, this layers cherry and raspberry cordial flavors over the powerful, concentrated tannins. There’s succulent red fruit coursing through those tannins, a plush sensation that surrounds each taste.  

92             V. Sattui     2021 Dry Creek Valley School House Creek Zinfandel
This is a smooth, elegant, finely integrated zin with purity to its plum flavors. It's clean rather than fresh, warm and mouthwatering, light and crisp with cranberry-scented tannins beneath a veil of alcohol. Oak shows up in the end, in a French-oak coffee and chocolate touch, not heavy but present.  

91             Pedroncelli     $48     2021 Dry Creek Valley Courage Zinfandel
Tart orange-zest notes lead this clean, pleasantly vegetal zin. It's dense but there's brightness and clarity to the fruit. Some spirity warmth in the end makes the fruit taste liqueur-ish.  

91             Soda Rock     $60     2021 Rockpile Reserve Zinfandel
With the warmth of melting chocolate, this is dense—it feels jammy against the tannins in the back. A hint of flamed orange zest takes on the chocolate richness in the end. (300 cases)  

90             County Line     $36     2021 Sonoma Coast Zinfandel
This is Eric Sussman’s négociant label, working with purchased grapes. His 2021 zin is waxy with salty red fruit and rooty horseradish spice that kicks up its umami character. It shows some volatility, then the fruit lasts with notes of pine. (460 cases)  

90             Foppiano     $30     2021 Russian River Valley Estate Zinfandel (Best Buy)
Peppery, cranberry relish scents add spice to this saturated zin. It’s big, almost sticky, but the scale of the wine will break free of that stickiness as it attaches itself to the grizzle on a steak. Mouthwatering in the end, especially with grilled beef.  

90             Trione     $37     2018 Sonoma County Flatridge Ranch Zinfandel
Scents of tallow feed into this wine’s wild blueberry fruit. The blueberry scent and flavor gains clarity and presence with air. Impressive in the end. A roast beef wine.  

87             Alexander Valley Vineyards     $24     2020 Sonoma County Sin Zin Zinfandel (Best Buy)
Peppery and bright, with red berry flavors, this is initially saturated by oak but the oak recedes a bit with air. What lasts is a sense of dried berries and vanillin, the wine solidly built and a little bitter.  

87             Edmeades     $20     2021 Mendocino County Zinfandel (Best Buy)
Soft, gentle, creamy and rich, this has the warmth of a berry pie, with lasting spice and cola notes. A simple $20 wine for the grill this summer.  

86             Kendall-Jackson     $17     2022 North Coast Vintners Reserve Zinfandel (Best Buy)
Simple red-cherry flavors have a syrup-like richness and softness. This is bloody red with some earthy notes to the alcohol. For a cookout.  
88             Bonterra Organic Estates     $22     2022 Mendocino County Estate Collection Red Blend (Best Buy)
Purple in color and flavor, this blend is mostly petite sirah and malbec, along with 13 percent zinfandel. Warm plum-skin flavors bring a bitter edge to the sweet fruit; though it’s short and blunt for now, this should lengthen out with a year or two in the cellar.  

Joshua Greene is the editor and publisher of Wine & Spirits magazine.

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